Mobile Medical Services

Statistics & Background Information

About 80 percent of the approximately two million people in the U.S. with opioid use disorder (“OUD”) do not have access to medication-assisted treatment (“MAT”).

Fewer than seven percent of the nation’s doctors have satisfied the regulatory requirements to prescribe buprenorphine. As a result, more than half of all counties in the U.S. have no licensed buprenorphine prescriber.

Therefore, there is a need for innovative approaches to increase the number of medical providers who can administer MAT to individuals with OUD.

The federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) was amended in 2018 to allow emergency medical services (“EMS”) professionals to administer controlled substances outside the presence of a medical director or other authorizing medical professional pursuant to a standing order for a specific patient and as authorized by state law.

EMS professionals include nurses, paramedics, or emergency medical technicians who are licensed or certified in their respective states and credentialed by the EMS agency medical director.

This new authority is limited to emergency medical response and emergency mobile medical services provided outside of a fixed medical facility.